Improvement in grain-bins



.W. S. SAMPSON.

Grain .Bin.

Paterifed Jan; 14,1862.

mi M95866.

, building.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WVILLIAM S. SAMPSON, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN GRAIN- BINS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 34,164, dated January 14, 1862.

'To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM S. SAMPSON, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Construction of Bins in Grain Warehouses; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being made to the anneXed drawings, making a part of this specification, in which Figure I is a plan view of the second story of agrain-warehouse as improved. Fig. II is a vertical section on the line mm of Fig. I, and similar letters indicate similar parts throughout the figures.

The ability to store grain in bulk and in great quantities is an important feature in the warehousing business of the country.' To do it with safety requires not merely that buildings shall be constructed of great strength in the walls to resist the thrust, but as that is not the only difficulty experienced they must be also capable of maintaining the balance or equable distribution both of the weight and thrust. From the nature of the business it is impossible to do this in buildings of ordinary construction, because the grain in any building of great size will probably belong to different persons or will consist of various kinds, thus requiring an abil ity to deliver each kind or portion Whenever wanted without regard to its location in the Hence the contents of an entire floor or all on one side might be taken out, thus leaving the building wholly out of balance, and this 'hasoften resulted in their coming down, involving loss of life as well as of property. Self-sustaining grain-bins have been devised which would allow the grain to be delivered from any section without endangering the others, and it is an improvement on this class of grain-warehouses that I have devised. Bins of Wood are defective from the fact that in case the grain heats in any one the bin is apt to be set on fire and communicate the fire from bin to bin. My plan contemplates the use of iron, although the bins may be constructed of any suitable material; and it consists in the form of the bins and in their arrangement with regard to each other and to the building. A granary of iron has already been the subject of a patent to D. D. Badger and to myself, dated June 14, 1859, being a series of tall cylinders, so arranged within a square or parallelogram of four walls that the sides of each cylinder touch the others. These are not onlyvery expensive to make but they also involve a great loss of material and room, because at those points where the cylinders touch each other there is double thickness of metal and a loss of room where the cylinders touch the walls, as the spaces between are too small for economical use.

Myimproveinent consists in a combination of square and of cylindrical bins, the cylinders being so placed with regard to the squares that they shall intercept the continuity of the sides of the same. In Fig. I an arrangement of this kind is shown wherein a repre sents the cylindrical bins and b the square. In order that the entire space may be utilized the cylinders must not be so set that any of them will stand in the corners of the building, but that those corner spaces a will be left to form other bins. If not sufficiently strong by their construction, the main walls as well as the flat sides of the bins b may be further sustained by a system of cross-braces, as shown at d, which intersect the squares and terminate in the wall. Smilar braces may likewise be put in to extend across the squares from cylinder to cylinder. The bottom of each bin is concave or hopper-shaped, with a dischargedoor to cover, as seen at c, and as in the patent above referred to. It will be seen that the principle of the arch for resistance is involved in each of the bins. Those atabeing cylinders, resist pressure from the interior equally on all sides; while their segments which protrude into the squares I) resist compression from the outside upon like principles. Thus each bin is. perfectly self-sustaining. Of course it is understood that these bins are of large dimen-' left comparativelyshort, and this arrangement I prefer. The cylinders may, however, be

placed midway between the corners of the squares, one-half of each cylinder projecting into each of two squares; but this form does not effect the bracing of the cylinders so perfectly by the walls of the squares.

I claim Forming the bins of a granary for storing" grain in bulk of alternate cylindrical chambers and chambers formed partly of flat Walls and partly of portions of each of the contiguous cylinders, substantially in the manner and for the purpose as set forth.

WM. S. SAMPSON. WVitnesses:

J. P. PIRSSON, S. H. MAYNARD. 

